Generally, a refrigerator serves to freshly store food items such as meat, fish, vegetable, fruits, and beverages. This refrigerator includes a refrigerator body having a freezing chamber, a refrigerating chamber, a vegetable chamber, etc., and doors mounted to one side of the refrigerator body for opening and closing the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber.
The refrigerator body includes a refrigeration cycle apparatus composed of a compressor, a condenser, a capillary tube, an evaporator, etc., a blower for forcibly flowing cool air formed by the evaporator, a circulation passage for guiding the cool air formed by the evaporator to be introduced into the evaporator via the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber, etc.
Once a temperature of the freezing chamber or the refrigerating chamber is more than a preset temperature, the refrigerating cycle apparatus starts to operate. As a result, the evaporator starts to form cool air, and the cool air formed by the evaporator circulates through the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber by the blower.
While the cool air circulates through the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber, the freezing chamber, the refrigerating chamber, and the vegetable chamber inside the refrigerating chamber maintain a preset temperature, respectively.
The refrigerator may be classified into various types according to a cool air circulation method, positions of the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber, a configuration of the evaporator, etc.
For instance, there are a refrigerator in which a freezing chamber is positioned above a refrigerating chamber, a refrigerator in which a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber are positioned side by side, a refrigerator in which a freezing chamber is positioned below a refrigerating chamber, etc.
The refrigerator is provided with various functions so as to meet a user's demands, and to enhance a user's convenience.
The refrigerator is equipped with an ice making system for making ice pieces.
The ice making system continuously makes ice pieces in the refrigerator, and includes an ice bank for storing ice pieces made in the refrigerator. A user may use the ice pieces by directly drawing out of the ice bank, or through a dispenser disposed on an outer surface of a refrigerator door.
The ice making system has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,259 B2, and FIGS. 1 to 3 partially show the drawings of the U.S. Patent.
According to the U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,259 B2, an icemaker 10 for making ice pieces is mounted to a refrigerator body 20 so as to be disposed in a freezing chamber. And, an ice bank 30 for storing ice pieces made by the icemaker 10 is coupled to an inner side of a refrigerator door 40 so as to be detachable in a vertical direction.
An ice crusher assembly 50 for crushing ice pieces is provided in the ice bank 30. And, a driving motor 60 for driving the ice crushing assembly 50, and a driving shaft 61 are vertically coupled to the refrigerator door 40. The ice crusher assembly 50 includes an ice crushing shaft 51, and a plurality of ice crushing cutters 52 coupled to the ice crushing shaft 51. The ice crushing shaft 51 of the ice crusher assembly 50 is coupled to the ice bank 30 so as to be positioned in a vertical direction.
The ice bank 30 is mounted to the refrigerator door 40, such that a coupling part of the ice crushing shaft 51 is detachable from a coupling part of the driving shaft 61 in a vertical direction.
A dispenser 70 for dispensing crushed ice pieces stored in the ice bank 30 is provided on an outer surface of the refrigerator door 40.
Unexplained reference numerals 80 and 81 denote coupling parts for coupling the ice bank to the refrigerator door in a vertical direction.
However, the conventional system has the following systems.
Firstly, since the ice bank 30 is detachably mounted to the refrigerator door 40 in a vertical direction, a user has a difficulty in detaching the ice bank 30 from the refrigerator door 40. That is, the user has to align the coupling part of the ice crushing shaft 51 disposed on a lower surface of the ice bank 30, with the coupling part of the driving shaft 61 mounted to the refrigerator door 40. Furthermore, when the user has to lift up or lower the ice bank 30 in a vertical direction for detachable mounting, ice pieces stored in the ice bank 30 may be discharged out of the ice bank 30. The ice bank 30 is mounted to the refrigerator door 40 in a state that a rear surface of the ice bank 30 comes in contact with an inner wall of the refrigerator door 40. This may cause the ice bank 30 to be inclined by a predetermined angle when being mounted to the refrigerator door 40.
Besides, since the icemaker 10 is mounted to the refrigerator body 20 to be disposed in a freezing chamber, the freezing chamber is provided with a small space. This may degrade a spatial utilization degree of the freezing chamber.